From seeing and learning how sugarcane flows in the field to how it is processed was so unique and interesting, especially for a product that most use every day. Then, seeing the family business that has built around the industry and the care and concern they put into their product, made the day even sweeter.

Just a few short years ago, FarmHer Sherri Reece wasn’t a FarmHer, in fact, she didn’t even live in the country. Today, this Tennessee FarmHer is happily raising goats and living the country life. Sherri Cook grew up in town and spent most of her career working as a bookkeeper for the construction company she ran with her husband, Charles. When the opportunity to purchase their dream land came up, the couple jumped.

Stephanie Steele is a FarmHer of many talents. She balances being a wife, mom, sweet corn FarmHer and professional in the ag industry working at Ag Connections, helping customers with their land management software.

Family is everything. They are there for us at the beginning and end, and throughout the twists and turns and mountains and valleys in between. At the end of a twisty turning gravel road near Danville, Kentucky I met a family that is there for each other, and a young woman who, with the support of that family is ready to take over the world.

Yesterday I felt overwhelmed by sadness, hopelessness, and frustration.I was horrified by the news of the shooting in Vegas as I woke up.I couldn’t peel myself away from the news.Then I saw an image that just magnified the situation….a girl laying in a pool of blood in her jean shorts.It hit me hard that it could have been me.As I looked at the photo while I sat waiting in the Dr's office for a yearly physical I felt almost numb.So, I started to write.

John Paul and Heather Dineen are Texas farmers making their mark on agriculture. John Paul knew he wanted to get into farming and Heather, who was his girlfriend at the time, studied up, learning about what their future life would hold. She and John Paul were married and started their family in a farming community on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. They built their farm slowly and surely and soon, it became their world.

From the minute I met Lexi Marek I knew she was something special. A future FarmHer, who grew up on a sixth generation family farm in Riverside, Iowa. She grew up helping around the farm where they raise crops, cattle and pigs. Lexi quickly developed her passion for pigs.

Krystina Cook was one of the first women to invite me to her ranch when I started FarmHer. It just so happens I was in Iowa with little time and less funds for FarmHer travel while she and her pigs were in California. Fast forward nearly three years and I found my way to the Cook Pigs Ranch just outside of the quaint town of Julian in the mountains above San Diego.

Sometimes, or a lot of times really, life takes us in the most unforeseen but beautiful directions. Meet Jen Welch of The Crowded Acre farm in Buena Vista, Colorado. She grew up in Georgia, loving animals and working in a vet clinic before finding her way to Colorado in search of her next adventure. Around the time her first child was born Jen decided to make the leap from food service to the root of it all and started her farm, The Crowded Acre.

We arrived at Crooked Lake Ranch in the dark, early morning, greeted by the headlights streaming out of a collection of trucks hooked up to trailers, their exhaust creating small clouds in the damp early morning air. The ranchers and their help had the horses loaded and ready to ride. We followed the trucks down the road a ways, watching the sun rise to our east, slowly shining a light on the native beauty that is Central Florida.